


We never stood a chance

by Ruta



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Before Battle, F/M, Pack Dynamics, Season Finale, Siblings, Speculation, Stolen Moments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-02-04 19:12:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18610738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ruta/pseuds/Ruta
Summary: "What did you feel?"Sansa turns around. She's relaxed, alert, ready for duty. Her profile is cut against the depth of the black sky. There are no stars, too much smoke to see them. It's a pity."When you found out. What did you feel?"(Yet another stolen moment before the battle)





	We never stood a chance

Outside the crypts, in stark contrast to the silence that he has just left behind, the night is a swarm of men in turmoil, a constellation of braziers and campfires that flare up like fallen stars, shouts and orders given over the noise of wind.  
  
As soon as she can, Daenerys slips away, distancing herself from him as much as possible, shortly becoming a shadow among other shadows.  
  
For a moment he is tempted to follow her, then the horns ring again. In his suddenly white and emptied mind, he has no doubt what to do, where to go. He runs towards the battlements and his hopes are not disappointed.  
  
They are both there and at the sound of footsteps, they turn simultaneously to look at him. They appear surprised, like they hadn't expected to see him.  
  
Sansa is the first to notice that something is wrong. She frowns, her eyes dancing on his face with something akin to a vigilant and cautious concern. "Where's Daenerys?"  
  
Arya doesn't make a sound, but in his head he can hear a sharp voice similar to hers distinctly shouting that - _we need her dragons!_  
  
He could lie, reassure them. He tilts his head a little and forces himself not to take his eyes off, bearing the silent reproach in theirs as he says, "She will not come."  
  
"What do you mean-" Sansa pales. "No. Tell me you didn't. Of all the idiotic things you could have done!"  
  
"What are you talking about?" Arya inquires.  
  
"He told her." Sansa's voice is flat and weary at the same time.  
  
He looks at them and it's like something finally clicked in his head. Jon confusedly thinks that he should be more surprised, feel something different from this strange and absolute clear-headedness. For a moment, however, everything becomes obvious, transparent. There's a clarity to his thinking that's... frightening.

The truth looks at him from two pairs of eyes, unlike as sun and moon. And he loves them both, but in a different way and _oh, so that's the way things are._  
  
"Why now? Why didn't you wait after the battle?" Sansa doesn't accuse him and there is a part of him that is grateful to her while another would prefer her to shout at him.  
  
Because there may not be an after. Because it could be the last chance to say it. Because he foolishly decided to do the good, honorable and right thing. Because he is just like Father. Only he isn't Ned Stark son, not really. Because when he discovered that Daenerys was also his family, he couldn't keep lying to her.  
  
"It had to be done."  
  
There is no need to say anything else.  
  
"You're an idiot," she says and for the first time he hears what she's not saying, but that has always been there between them, in the space that separates them, in the tension that unites them. _I love you_.  
  
He smiles without smiling. "I know."  
  
"So what do we do now?" Arya intervenes. She doesn't make judgments or comment on what she has just witnessed.  
  
"We fight," he answers without hesitation.  
  
Arya nods, wolfish and serious. She seems hardened in iron and in the blood of a thousand battles. When she disappears, Jon wonders what truly happened to his little sister. He knows the answer. She's dead. The girl was killed to let the woman be born, the warrior.  
  
"You have to talk to her," Sansa says earnestly.  
  
"I already did. She doesn't want to listen to me."  
  
Out of the corner of his eye, he sees her stiffen. "Then try again and make sure she listen to you this time."  
  
"You don't understand." He wouldn't want to, but it's stronger than him. Anger begins to crackle under his skin. "She thinks I want that damned throne."  
  
"Then convince her that's not the case!"  
  
"Do you think I didn't try? You weren't there. You didn't see how she looked at me. Like I -" _I had betrayed her_.  
  
"You're right, I don't know, but I can imagine it. I don't know what it feels like to find out you have a family when you thought you were alone, but I know what it's like when you lose it and when you get it back. In other circumstances, I would advise you to give her time. Time that we don't have." Sansa puts both hands against the merlons and looks down. "Without her, we don't stand a chance," she whispers fiercily.  
  
The horns silence whatever he is about to say. "What did you feel?"  
  
Sansa turns around. She's relaxed, alert, ready for duty. Her profile is cut against the depth of the black sky. There are no stars, too much smoke to see them. It's a pity. "When you found out. What did you feel?"  
  
Sansa doesn't flinch, doesn't breathe. Then mildly, quietly, like she's confiding a secret, she licks her lips and answers, "Relief."  
  
_Truly, they never stood a chance_.

**Author's Note:**

> (I don't think D**** will refuse to fight, but. Another missing moment before the battle)  
> I think Jon told her because he felt guilty and above all because he wanted to give her a choice. To remain and fight for her own reasons and not only his. He found out she's family too and he wants to act accordly.


End file.
